Ukraine's Constitutional Court on Saturday lifted a ban on the country's Communist party, saying the parliament's decision to bar it after the breakup of the Soviet Union was unconstitutional.

Ukraine's parliament, or Verkhovna Rada, banned the Communist party days after Ukraine got independence from the Soviet Union in August 1991. The Constitutional Court ruled Saturday that lawmakers had no right to exclude any party. Only the courts have that jurisdiction. The court also ruled that the present Communist party, which was registered in July 1991 at Ukraine's Justice Ministry, had nothing in common with the Communist party of the Soviet Union and was not regarded as its successor. The Communist party strove for years to cancel the ban and succeeded in 1999 in gaining a constitutional review of the parliament's decision. The review continued until last February. However, the court delayed the announcement of its decision for months until Saturday, a move that Communist leaders criticized as a "fact that has no precedent in world legal proceedings."